Former Nintendo of America employee Dan Adelman has recently shared his views on the Wii U. The indie expert formally announced yesterday that he had resigned from Nintendo to pursue other areas of interest, including forming his own independent business for indie game marketing.

In a question and answer session on the social networking platform Ask.fm, Adelman responds to a fan on whether he believes Nintendo are in a difficult and tough period. He says the console deserves to do much better, but the main problem stems from the Wii U’s name, which he finds “abysmal”. You can find answers to other fan questions here, where he speaks on his time at Nintendo and the state of indie game progression.

“Wii U is not selling as well as it deserves to. It has a lot to offer with great games you can’t get anywhere else. The value of the GamePad hasn’t been justified. But the name Wii U is abysmal. I think that cut sales in half right there.”

Sounds like this guy was fired from Nintendo and is very bitter. He likely produced very low sales on his indie games and Nintendo couldn’t justify continuing to pay him or giving him a raise. So he decided to quit to save face. After a day, the bitterness comes out in full force. Now he will fade off into obscurity with his mission to “help indie creators! ” he had his chance and failed. Without Nintendo he will only be worse off and likely take a job at a rental car company or some such place not game related. Time to grow up and face the real world and quit tweeting nonsense.

Off course he’s not gonna say the name sucks while working for the company that made the name, that would just be plain idiotic.It’s not as if he’s completely badmouthing Nintendo and complaining about everything they did. He just makes a complaint now, while he wasn’t exactly in the position to complain about that before.

I like the “U”, but the Wii part is just stupid. If they still feel the need to put part of an old Nintendo console name in there they could have just gone with “Ultra Nintendo Entertainment System” so people can just say “UNES” or “Ultra Nintendo” (obviously instead of SNES or Super Nintendo). That would still savor the nostalgia but so much time has passed that it couldn’t possibly cause confusion.

I actually wouldn’t have minded if they just named it Project Cafe. Lol, that sounds soothing. After the reputation Wii got, it’s basically embarrassing to even say the name “Wii U”. Even my friend who is a hardcore Nintendo fan makes fun of the name. Wii shouldn’t have been in it at all. They probably should’ve named it something completely new. Anything is better than Wii U though. I’d have taken Wii 2 to be honest.

Wii was a “success”, like losing 30lbs on a crash diet is a success… You gain all the weight back.
Nintendo won a gamble with the Wii, they should have taken their winnings and moved on, back to catering to gamers. Instead they gambled their winnings being greedy, and now they are losing what they won.

They better learn their lesson this time or there will be troubled waters in their future.

The Wii was a success to NINTENDO. I don’t give a shit about how much cash they made off of it. It had a shit name and it was a horrible system. Casual gamers are the only reason it succeeded. They got away with that shit scott free. :/ But I did enjoy some Wii games and there’s still some I need to get. But in honest opinion, as a gamer, Wii was a failure. Gamecube was so much better.

Nintendo Revolution would have been dope. And I think if they would have launched with maybe a six core processor besides quad it wouldn’t be called last gen but have enough to be able to keep up steadily with the power of the PS4 and Xbone. Just saying. But insatiable they opt for a controller that is about the size of a 3ds add analog have a screen with basic touch controls for stuff(3ds screen with menu on it for going home etc). so more power can go into the games and not share it with the gamepad

Seriously? The Wii is my favorite console of all time! It had games I wanted to play, it was popular, and gave access back to SNES, Genesis and N64 games. It must be the game console I’ve spent more time playing games on it in all of my life. Wii was an excellent console, it totally deserved all of its sales.

The problem with the Wii U is that, instead Nintendo repeating the formula for the Wii’s success, an easy-to-understand controller, they decided to create something more hardcore-oriented mixed with crazy design ideas. The Game Pad is the most ambitious controller Nintendo ever created, it compiles all Nintendo crazy ideas into a gigantic controller. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Wii U and the Game Pad, when I furst saw this thing, I thought they were planning to export the DS and 3DS gameplay ideas to the home console because of the touch screen, the traditional button layout is to appeal to the fans of traditional gameplay, the Game Pad is incredibly confortable and my fingers can reach all the buttons with zero effort whatsoever, I just don’t like these useless camera and mic, its humongous size like I said before, and until the Amiibo reveal, I was in favor to scrap the NFC reader too.

The Game Pad should be reduced, not dropped, the buttons and the screen are far more important that anything.

The Gamepad is a great idea, but I think it should have been optional from the start. It isn’t necessary for games like SM3DW or NSMBU at all and I think the G-Pad is what made them lose a lot of focus on the console itself. Gamepad should not be required for Netflix or Youtube. I don’t like the way they force you to use it. Gamepad is comfy though and it’s my favorite Wii U controller at the moment. I only hate Wii because of the overuse of motion control and lack of third party. They could’ve made it a lot better, but for some reason, they shifted their focus to casuals and completely abandoned me and many others… I missed out on basically every big game that released. At the time, I didn’t know what GTA was. I didn’t know what Far Cry was. I didn’t know what Tekken was. I didn’t know what Resident Evil was. I didn’t know what Assassin’s Creed was. I didn’t know what Battlefield was. None of that. I was just living in the shadows playing some Nintendo games and some bad-ok 3rd party games. Glad I got to play Smash and Mario Galaxy though. Sigh…

you’re one of those people?
hollowgrape i thought you were cool. you can say whatever you want about nintendo but if you buy their products is because you like them and there’s no reason to feel ashamed. idiots like sasori only laughs at other people.

To be honest, I don’t really care what anyone has to say about the Wii U. I just stick to playing Mario Kart 8 and go on playing Wii U games. :D And, I can understand I probably came off a bit too harsh on the Wii, but it really disappointed me because it didn’t get all the games I wanted to play. And it also used motion control way too much to the point where I didn’t even like it anymore. I don’t like motion controls, ok? :( But anyways, I hope you or anyone else didn’t get offended by the name calling I did of the Wii because I was ot being serious. And I’ve said this multiple times before that I am no fanboy of any company and I will make names of the other consoles too if that’s what you want. :P Problem is, I just can’t think of very many names… XD

hahahahaha, where’s glados?
i can’t remember the last time i made a comment here!!!
somebody sent me the new memes about sasori and it was so funny that i had to show them to everybody (friends, family, etc) ha!!!

No, because it missed out on basically every game I ever wanted, it wasn’t HD, it used motion control too much, support for it basically died in 2010, and you couldn’t download full retail games. I lost a lot of Wii games because I wasn’t able to download… Sigh.

I couldn’t agree more @HollowGrapeJ! I feel the Wii was absolute trash, but the GameCube was an amazing, underrated system.
I also can relate to your overall experience with the Wii. I don’t like motion controls, and there were 3rd-party games I actually wanted, but the system wasn’t even 1/20th of the power needed to run them, nor did it have a desirable audience for the developers to consider. Not only that, but the Wii also horribly let me down even in Nintendo’s own first-party software. Mario Kart Wii was, IMO, the worst in the series, Pokémon Battle Revolution was horribly shallow in respect to Stadium/Stadium2, and especially Colosseum/XD, and the Wii had absolutely no F-Zero or Starfox to speak of (both being among my favorite Nintendo IPs).

The Wii system, without a doubt, provided the least enjoyable experience of my gaming life to date.

The Wii U is a pretty damn great system, already with great games and more ahead (on top all the games it has/is getting, OMG Starfox is also on its way I’M SO HYPE), but it’s shooting itself in the foot with that name… I was hoping for something more along the lines of “Nintendo”, “Ultra Nintendo”, “Nintendo U”, or even the rumored name “Nintendo Stream”, but having “Wii” in the name is implying that the system is casual-focused and horribly underpowered, which it’s not.

Totally agree. I AM embarrassed to tell people what system I have. I don’t even talk about it anymore.
The word “Wii” is a cancer to Nintendo. It printed money during the rush of casuals to come to the system, but the casuals are gone, and the gamers are neglected.
The Wii will ultimately cost Nintendo every dime it made them.

Yep. It’s sad. This guy is saying what we’ve all been saying since launch… Well, I think there was like, 3 months when people took it seriously, then they realized Nintendo had nothing up their sleeves, and no software for a year and a half.

seriously? i don’t want to be mean with you. you care what the other people says, don’t you?
i don’t mind what people think about the thinks i enjoy, they can eat shit and i won’t change that, i agree that the name “wii u” can confuse people, but that’s not a reason to be ashamed, seriously you people make me sick.

Facepalm. Try talking to a group of people about what video games they play and let the first few words that come out of their mouths be “Call of Duty, Playstation 3, or Assassin’s Creed.” And then try bringing up Wii. I guarantee at least one of those motherfuckers are going to laugh. Lol.

only motherfuckers will laugh at you, i have a wii, xbox one and wii u and i don’t laugh at people who own only a wii, real gamers don’t do such things. also my friends have those “hardcore” consoles and they don’t give a damn about what consoles you own. if you feel ashamed for the things you own, it means you have problems and as i said i don’t want to be rude.

I think i was lucky to go to my school. Lol. A lot of them did play Xbox 360 and PS3, but if I mentioned the Wii U or Wii, or something like “My Greninja reached level 100!” Or “Did you know Mega Man is in the new smash brothers?” They would be like “Really? I dont believe you :p” and i would show them and we would all have a good time. I’m also going to high school next week, and i was able to go meet my future classmates, and a lot of them loved Nintendo and didn’t make fun me either!

No, the people who won’t laugh at you for it, are the mature ones who you should be befriending, because they don’t make childish judgement calls based off of what you own.

There is literally no reason to be embarrassed over talking about the wii, wii u, or any other system.
Anyone laughing at you for that, is an elitist with confidence issues who places too much self-worth on the consoles he owns and how others judge him for them, not an open-minded gamer.

Nintendo learn’t and has changed all this slowly. Mario kart 8 is selling very very well. Charting in the Uk in the top ten for 2 1/2 months. In Europe it is selling well and charting with Tomadachi life.

Okay, maybe he has valid point, but it isn’t that big of an issue, how is it a problem when Nintendo name their system the “Wii U” but when Microsoft name their console “Xbox One” no one confuses it for the 1st generation of Xboxes and not the latest?

I think an awesome name for a Nintendo console is the “Nintendo Nexus”

But you see the thing is the name “Xbox” actually sounds like it was made for gaming. It doesn’t sound stupid at all. Everyone knows what the Xbox 360 is. So literally no one except dumbasses couldn’t tell the difference between the original Xbox and the One. And considering that the Xbox One was made to be the so called “All-In-One” console, the name actually makes sense. Whereas, “Wii U” makes no sense at all. Wii already sounded stupid and they took it took the next level by adding literally only one extra letter. But hey, at least they didn’t use Microsoft’s name. If Wii U sounded dumb, just imagine how stupid “Wii One” would sound. It sounds like “We won” XD

1.) It’s associated with ridiculously weak hardware.
2.) It’s the pun of every gaming joke.
3.) It’s confusing to consumers.
4.) It’s just an attempt to ride the Wii’s popularity and try to soak in more casuals. (which it is failing miserably at)
5.) 3rd parties laughed at the Wii, they are laughing at WiiU now.

The Piece of Shit U, the Fuck U, the Wipe my ass with U, the weenie U, the Weak U, the We Have No Games For U, The Weed U, The You Ain’t Never Gettin’ Majora’s HD U, The Wii 2.0, etc. Seriously, there are just way too many ways to make fun of the name. At least for PS, I can think of “Gaystation” right off the top of my head. I got nothin for Xbox though. (btw those were just examples, I love my Wii U. Don’t you guys fucking dare accuse me of being a fanboy. I’m just having fun. XD)

They should keep with the blue square and just start calling it the U for short, that way they could continue using the same logo, but make it more clear that it is a seperate system. Thats what I do. When my friends come over I say “want to play mariokart on the U?” Not only is it less of a mouthful, it actually distinguishes it better than the full title. I just think the blue square and the sound from the ads is too cool to give up on.

Oh my god, that is a much better idea. The U. It’s simple, short, easy to say. And it doesn’t sound stupid. Why didn’t Nintendo think of that? Who tried to keep the Wii name? Lol, it already got made fun of last gen and now it’s back to haunt them for at least another good 8 more years.

I think Nintendo will axe the Wii U a lot earlier than they axed the Wii, unless there is a massive increase in sales. If something isn’t making much money they will be looking for the earliest opportunity to phase it out. Which I think is good, because the Wii U is shit.

A very good idea. They could possibly start branding it as the U. Changing a brand name after launch is always tough though, Microsoft cloud storage was….Windows Live Skydrive, Windows Live Folders and now it’s One Drive. Same with Zune Music, then Xbox Music. I use these products and I found it hard to keep up with the changes!

Yeah the official name should be the Nintendo U (just so people would know that it’s a nintendo console) but everyone will call it the U and I think that if they did that the sales would be much higher!

A question for Nintendo: Why the fuck would you continue with the “Wii” name when it is the laughing stock of the games industry? If you’re trying to appeal to casuals, I can tell you that they’ve moved on to smart devices. But obviously not many gamers are gonna convert from Xbox/PS either, when you’ve got a name like that. A tiny part of me wants the Wii U to die, so they can learn from their mistakes, and make a powerful console, a controller that has all the features it should have (no analog triggers on Wii U controllers?), and actual third party support. If you get the first two, you will get the third.

Yes you can. Just because you work for a company doesn’t mean you should become a mindless drone and agree to everything they do – not to mention that he said this stuff after he left the company. It’s completely valid and reasonable for someone to give constructive criticism on the decisions their company is making, especially after leaving that company. You know what other company had a bunch of “Yes-men”? Lucasfilm, and that got us the prequel trilogy because no one had the balls to tell George Lucas what a fucking terrible idea Gungans and Jake Lloyd were.
Stop trying to stir the pot, especially considering how much work he’s done for getting indie titles on the Wii U.

And like I said – he’s not working for them anymore. And it’s not like he’s trashing them for no good reason. He has valid criticisms that can and should be addressed. You’re making baseless assumptions, including theorizing exactly why he’s making these comments. Gee, the only logical explanation is that he’s just butthurt and hates Nintendo, right? Good grief. For all the damage the anti-Nintendo trolls do, you do damage as well, just on the opposite side with your willful ignorance at times.

Uh, where? You didn’t make any distinction between when he was working for them and when he was not in regards to making the comments, and are just trashing him because he’s speaking out against the “empire”, as if that alone makes him a “traitor” (spare us your dramatic roleplaying bullshit for once, please).

“You can’t say things like this when you are an official part of the empire…”
“…if Nintendo didn’t allow this then he clearly went out off line and is now taking his butthurt all over the place…”
“…you cannot express them out in public while working for an empire if they have not allowed him to do this to begin with…”

You’re now backtracking after making comments ripping him apart saying that he was making these criticisms while still with Nintendo, which isn’t true.

lol wut? Seriously, did you just question someone’s career decisions without knowing a goddamn thing about them or their job? Really? Wow.

Wow.

Just because he was working for them for 9 years doesn’t put him under ANY obligation to continue working there – he decided to leave for his own personal reasons which he’s gone into some detail, but under which he again doesn’t need to justify to anyone else, least of all YOU. Welcome to the business world. Not to mention that just because he might have a differing opinion on something like the name of the console doesn’t mean he should just leave. Just because I work for a company doesn’t mean I’m going to agree with them on everything, but the other opportunities that come from it are usually enough to warrant staying there until something better comes up. Again, welcome to the business world. Welcome to the real world.
Un-fucking-believeable.

I have to disagree, the name has nothing to do with it. It’s already gearing up to become a better console based on new titles that are releasing. It’s a cycle that happens over and over. At the end of the consoles life then it can only be determined if it was a complete failure. I guarantee when Nintendo releases a new home console we will all be talking about how great the Wii U was and how it had better games. That’s a given for any new console release, just wait out the droughts and brace yourselves for great games coming soon.

When I got my Wii I felt ripped when there was a lack of third party support and got tons of weak ports until the good games started to roll through. Smash Bros., Mario Kart Wii, Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, Skyword Sword, Mario Party, Donkey Kong etc. made me fall in love with my Wii and the same is happening with my Wii U

the problem with wii and wii U is the U does not give much. it’s not like famicom and super famicom where the name even slightly the same tend to suggest it’s different beast. The problem with the U is typically Japanese play on word and doesn’t computer very well outside Japan.

NO WAY! I’d become a Playstation gamer before I’d ever be a PC gamer. When I think of PC’s, video games are NOT something that comes to mind. I don’t even have a regular computer now. And I don’t care about ever having one again. Too darn many problems.

If Dumtendo thought of 2014 back in 2008 it would have sold more units by now. There’s so much wrong with the Wii U its not even funny. First if your going to start with the Gamepad as a controller why didn’t they think to make it handle 4? Why make it weak to not play around the whole house? Why would they think 8gig added in 2008 would be enough in 2014 knowing games would use up more storage. In 2008 why didn’t they think people would want to play Smash Brawl holding the Gamepad? Why didn’t they think of online being popular by 2014? If they thought of these things Dumb tending wouldn’t be in a $9milliin dollar negative right now. Dumtendo had plenty of time to plan the Wii U and all they came up with was a machine more powerful than a PS3!

Plus as popular as YouTube why didn’t dumbtendo make the YouTube channel better for 2014? You can’t even comment on the YouTube channel. Plus why didn’t they think of having the Gamepad turn off when using Netflix and knowing the Gamepad has a weak battery.

This is the result when a company doesn’t think of new technologies or changes in demand 5 years ahead when currently developing a future product in R&D. Nintendo needs help on how to plan ahead from Toyota.

Now this is what every video game site & news article should start off with when referring to why Dan Adelman left Nintendo!

{Question: It saddens me to see you leave because of Nintendo’s thick rules. They have to be a lot more open minded, otherwise Wii U wouldn’t be in this mess. Not that you didn’t help, you did a great job. I’ve just wanted Nintendo to be #1 again for so long, and it’s fumbles like this that prevent them.

Answer: That’s not why I left! I left b/c I achieved what I set out to do there and want to move on to my next challenge. Not being allowed to tweet was a bit of an annoyance, but the real reason is that indies games is obviously much broader than Nintendo, and for me to make a big impact to take indie games to the next level of success, I need to work directly with developers across all platforms.}

I own a Wii U and love nintendo, but I don’t think the Wii U will be able to win, much less “catch up” in this generation. Most of the exclusives that “everyone” wants are mostly niche (albeit amazing) games that a few diehard Nintendo fans play (like me), but not the majority. Smash Bros. will keep it from being an outright flop, but it will still probably lose to Sony in the long run. I see this turning out like the 6th gen of consoles (Gamecube, Xbox and Ps2), with Playstation 4 winning by a landslide (over 100 million units) and Wii U and Xbox one coming close together ( around 30-40 million units each, not a complete failure but also not a smashing success) by 2018. HOWEVER, this doesn’t spell and sort of “end” for Nintendo. They may flop this generation, but who knows what’ll happen the next one.